The Housing Ministry will build 350 housing units in Male within one and a half years, and 500 within two years according to a report in Miadhu.
The work will be performed by K. Agrawal of India, and will consist of three bedroom units of 1000 square feet, with a monthly rent of US$850.
“The housing units will be leased in a manner that the person will complete the payment within 15 years. Some of the flats will be awarded to those who are eligible for housing benefits,” Aslam said.
A political party membership report published by the Elections Commission (EC) shows that the membership of People’s Alliance (PA) has dropped to less than 3000.
The EC recently sent a bill to parliament that if passed, will mean any political party which does not have a minimum of 3000 members will dissolves by default.
The EC report, published on May 20, indicates that the PA now has 2986 members, 35 less than the previous report published on May 13.
President of the EC Fuad Thaufeeq said that after the bill is passed any political party with a membership of less than 3000 would be given a period of one year before it was disbanded.
He said that he did not know when the bill would be passed and implemented.
PA Registrar Mohamed Rasheed said the party had sent 250 membership forms to the EC which would take the membership number above 3000.
”We focus to maintain the membership at least at 3000,” Rasheed said. ”As we are in a coalition with the DRP we don’t do much work to increase the number of members.”
Rasheed said that people have always been resigning and joining the party.
”400 people may resign within a week,” he said, ”another week 800 people may join.”
The Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP), led by Ahmed Thasmeen Ali, has the highest amount of members according to the EC report, ahead of the Maldivian Democratic Party MDP by 2036 members.
The DRP hada total of 38,254 on the last report, which was 191 members less than the previous report.
MDP had 36,218 members in it, 1185 members more than the previous report.
The Jumhoory Party lead by Gasim ‘Buruma’ Ibrahim was the third largest political party with 6204 members.
An internal World Bank bank report produced for the donor’s conference, called ‘Placing the Macro Challenge Facing the Maldives in Context’ has revealed the full extent of the economic challenge facing the country.
“The Maldives faces the most challenging macroeconomic situation of all democratic transitions that have occurred since 1956,” the report claims, noting that the full level of financial strife “may not be fully appreciated.”
In terms of GDP growth rate the Maldives is in the lowest 10 percent of the distribution of all transitions, and in terms of public sector deficit, the Maldives faces the worst situation of all previous democratic transitions.
Under the heading ‘How did the Maldives get into this situation?’, the World Bank report notes that “the origin of the crisis is very clear… the wage bill for public sector employees grew dramatically in a very short time.”
An accompanying graph of the country’s total spending on ‘salaries and allowances’ shows a doubling of expenditure between 2003 and 2007, and a sharp increase between 2007 and 2009 as spending more than doubles yet again from Rf2 billion to almost Rf5 billion. Revenues meanwhile plummet steadily during 2008.
Inflated spending on salaries in 2007 sparked an economic crisis
“Even before government revenues fell and when government revenues were at an all time high in 2008, the ratio of the wage bill to revenues at 46.5 percent was also at an all-time high (46.5 percent compared to an average of 38.1 percent between 2000 and 2007). When revenues plummeted in 2009, the share of the wage bill to revenues rose an astronomical 89 percent,” the report explains.
“While part of the increase was due to hiring more workers, the major part of the increase was due to the increase in compensation,” it said.
Increases to the salaries and allowances of government employees between 2006 and 2008 reached 66 percent, “by far the highest increase in compensation over a three year period to government employees of any country in the world,” the report noted.
Spokesman for the Civil Service Commission (CSC) Mohamed Fahmy said the increases needed to be considered in the context of “the total budget situation”, and were in line with government expenditure during the period.
“We have a tradition of salary increases every other year,” he said, rather than an annual increase based on inflation.
Those paid by the government included not only civil servants, “but political appointees, commissions, the judiciary”, he emphasised.
“Our case all long has been that everyone employed by the government has to be treated equally,” Fahmy said.
“If the government does not have the money to pay in full, then whatever it does have has to be paid out in an equitable manner that upholds the constitution. Everybody has to be treated equally – it is very important to make that distinction.”
World’s greatest tax haven
Meanwhile, the World Bank’s annual ‘Doing Business’ report for 2010 saw the Maldives’ ‘ease of doing business’ ranking fall from 71 to 87, and identified no ‘business-friendly’ reforms. The report acknowledges the Maldives as the world’s number one tax haven, although this could soon change if a pending bill on taxation is passed by Parliament.
Countries with successful business reforms “follow a longer-term agenda aimed at increasing the competitiveness of their firms and economy,” the report noted.
“But while successful reformers follow a clear direction in their policy agenda, they do not hesitate to respond to new economic realities,” it said. “Mauritius, the top-ranked economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, just announced a new insolvency act ‘to maintain the viability of the commercial system in the country.'”
The top countries in which to do business are Singapore, New Zealand and Hong Kong, the report noted.
Correction: An earlier version of this story described Mohamed Fahmy as a member of the ‘Civil Service Association(CSC)’. Fahmy is a member of the Civil Service Commission (CSC).
Bangladeshi expatriates can help strengthen the cultural relationship between the Maldives and Bangladesh, Vice President Dr Mohamed Waheed Hassan said at a forum organised by the Bangladesh High Commission to the Maldives.
Dr Waheed said historically the Maldives had focused on Bangladesh’s economic input to the Maldives, “but should appreciate the cultural and human dimensions of Bangladesh’s rich culture.”
He noted that Bangladesh had one of the world’s most advanced civil society movements, from which the Maldives could benefit.
The forum marks the beginning of a cultural exchange programme between the two countries.
A 52 year old man was found dead in the woods of Faresmaathodaa in Gaafu Dhaalu Atoll, after he was believed to have fallen from a coconut tree.
Miadhu reported that Ali Hussain Manik was found by other islanders at 6:00am this morning, nearby a rope used for climbing coconut trees and a carving knife.
The body was taken to the Faresmaathodaa Health Centre where the attending doctor concluded Manik had died on the May 23.
The Police are continuing to investigate the incident, Miadhu reported.
A team of Commonwealth Election Observers have released a report claiming that the UK electoral system is corruptible “and open to fraud.”
While believing the recent UK election was undertaken in a free and fair manner, this was a success based on “trust” rather than “controls and deterrents.”
The observers suggested improving the identification of voters at registration and polling stations, better verification of postal ballots to close certain loopholes, centralisation of electoral roll records to prevent multiple registrations in more than one constituency, and more staff at polling stations to ensure people can vote in a timely manner.
This last issue caused widespread condemnation following the day of the election, with thousands of voters queuing outside venues turned away when the ballot boxes closed at 10pm. Many people in London reported waiting in lines for several hours, with many office workers struggling to vote in time.
“The Maldives, once considered a liberal Islamic nation, has been increasingly adopting fundamentalist Muslim practices,” the Washington Times newspaper claimed yesterday.
The piece, which appeared in the paper’s diplomatic news column Embassy Row, noted that the Maldives has been “hosting Taliban terrorists from Afghanistan and breeding a youth attracted to Islamic jihad. Many analysts report that Maldivian young people have been recruited by Pakistani terrorists.”
“The US ambassador to the Maldives is discussing the possibility of transferring some terrorism suspects from the USmilitary prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to the tropical island nation in the Indian Ocean, which some analysts say is a ‘paradise for Islamic radicalism’,” the newspaper claimed.
Dhivehi Rayyithunge Party (DRP) MP Ahmed Nihan has said that he has information that the Guantanamo Bay detainees have been brought to the Maldives secretly.
”I am 99.9 percent sure that they are here. The information I received on the issue was from senior officials of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) who are very familiar with the case,” said Nihan.
Nihan said the absence of Foreign Minister Dr Ahmed Shaheed from yesterday’s National Security Committee proved that there were “still hidden secrets behind the scenes.”
”If the government has not done anything unlawful and if they are so confident, why would they be so afraid to face the parliament and the people,” Nihan asked.
He claimed the government had kept the matter a secret ”but when the document was leaked the issue became heated and people became aware that this was happening.”
Nihan claimed that the Maldives was now at risk of becoming “a nest for terrorists.”
”When the country becomes a nest for terrorists, others will start hating us,” h said. ”Then we will see our little nation under attack by another country.”
He accused President Mohamed Nasheed of failing to disclose details of the case during his presidential radio address.
”He only briefly said that we should help the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, and urged the President of the United States to release the detainees and shut down the jail.”
Furthermore, Nihan claimed that the act of government could potentially disrupt the peace and sovereignty of the country, and claimed the Maldives may “turn into a terrorist hub.”
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahmed Naseem said the foreign ministry did not want to comment on the issue.
However, Press secretary for the President, Mohamed Zuhair denied the suggestion made by Nihan and dismissed it as ”all lies.”
Zuhair said that Nihans aim was to hype up the population.
”The President gave information about the Maldives accepting Guantanamo detainees last year on November 9, 10 and 11 during his official speeches,” Zuhair said.
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